[Buddha-l] philosophical (as opposed to agnostical) buddhism

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

curt schreef:
> Erik Hoogcarspel wrote:
>> curt schreef:
>>
> There are varying legends about the origins of the word "cosmopolitan" 
> - I believe the most persistent legend is that it was first coined by 
> Diogenes the Cynic (who was probably the second most admired 
> philosopher of the ancient world - after Socrates). All of the 
> "schools" of philosophy were deeply cosmopolitan - whether they used 
> the word or not.
It depends how you define the word. Literally it means one whose city is 
the world. Most Athenians had little appreciation of other cultures or 
valuesystems. One who didn't speak Greek was a mumbler (barbaros) and 
Athens was of course the only city in the world. Passing a polite remark 
about another culture is imho not enough to qualitfy oneself as being a 
cosmopolitan.  One of Socrateses hang-ups was the relativism of the 
sofists, they were too cosmopolitan for his taste. He on the other hand 
insisted on his loyalty to the Gods of Athens. Off course in the 
Hellenistic period things changed, but the myth about the disagreement 
between Alexander and Aristotle, where the latter insists on the 
superiority of the Greeks, is significant. Zeno, being a phenecian of 
origin and a tradesman had a good reason to be e cosmopolitan in this way.
>
> We know nothing of Socrates except through other writers - primarily 
> his most famous student, Plato. Although there is no evidence that 
> Plato called himself a "cosmopolitan" - he most certainly was one. In  
> one of his most famous and influential dialogs, the Timaeus, Plato 
> portrays the Greeks literally as "children" with respect to the 
> Egyptians. In the First Alcibiades (which some people claim was not 
> actually be Plato - but not for any good reason), Socrates portrays 
> the Persians as vastly superior to the Greeks in terms of their culture.
>
> If someone doesn't appear to be a philosopher to you, I wouldn't worry 
> about it too much. People like Shantideva, Nagarjuna, Tsongkapa, 
> Mipham, etc were clearly "philosophers".

Those were the days my friend, allthough I would hesitate to qualify 
Tsongkhapa and Mipam as philosophers, I think they were more doctrine 
reformers like Luther and Küng. Nowadays the Buddhist leaders are not 
productive, but reproductive, they preach the truth instead of asking 
themselves questions, their minds are as dead as doornails. Their main 
occupation is flying around in jets and buying real estate.


-- 


Erik


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